Want to Compete in the Olympics? These Sports Give You the Best Odds

Do you have an aspiring competitive drive? Do you have your heart set on competing on that Olympic foreground to make a name for yourself? Did you know that some sports are going to be easier than others to get in with?

The math is fairly simple. The number of participants in an Olympic sport divided by the number of people in that sport will give you the odds. More or less, that is. As always, there are a lot of if’s. But for sake of simplicity we will leave that out here. And we’ve also just done the math based on the worldwide numbers (the odds will differ from country to country).

So, without further ado, here are the sports you need to choose from if you want a realistic chance of ever competing in the Olympics.

_____

Judo

While martial arts have increased in popularity, especially since they were added to the Olympics, there are still fewer Judo competitors than there are in many other Olympic sports. In fact, roughly 1 in 100 Judo competitors that try for a spot at the Olympics makes it, as compared to 1 in 30,000 tennis players.

_____

Archery

Archery is relatively unpopular. It also tends to be a costly sport to participate in and to gain skill with. An added benefit is that it doesn’t depend a whole lot on your physical prowess. You don’t have to have that bikini-ready body to be able to compete in archery, either.

It does take a fair amount of arm strength to pull back the bowstring, and there is a fair amount of technical skill involved. But then again, there are far fewer competitors for the spots. So the chances of making it are higher.

_____

Equestrian

Let’s face it. This is a niche sport. Not everyone can afford to have a horse out in the backyard, right? Also, riding lessons are expensive, and it takes years of lessons to be good enough to compete at this level. So, the pool of competitors is fairly small.

This is another one where age and physical abilities are not going to matter that much. But you need to have both time and money on your hand. It’s no coincidence that members of royal families have participated at the Olympics in this discipline.

_____

Sailing

Here’s another one that has a smaller pool of popularity largely because of its extremely prohibitive cost. So, if you have the big bucks to have access to a sailboat to learn the ropes (no pun intended), it definitely gives you a good chance of getting into the Olympics and getting your shot at glory.

_____

Shooting

Shooting is fairly unpopular. It is yet another one that fits into that holy trinity of being expensive, unpopular, and very forgiving of less than perfect physiology. And who doesn’t like shooting at stuff? It’s something that can be learned fairly easily by most people, at least as long as you have decent vision.

_____

Curling

Curling is a less popular sport. And did you know that most of the people on curling teams average between the age of 30 and 49? There are even quite a few participants over the age of 50 and a handful even in their 60s.

So, age is not as big a factor for this particular winter sport. And it looks like fun pushing that thing around the ice with skates strapped on, doesn’t it? Sure, there is some rigorous training involved, but the odds do seem to be stacked in your favour. And for once, it’s not very costly. It’s just so darn unpopular…

_____

Luge

Yet another fairly unpopular and costly winter sport. The equipment alone is going to set you back quite a bit. And there are further complications if you live in a warmer climate because you are going to have to find somewhere with snow and such to practice and train – and to do so for a lengthy period of time.

_____

Bobsleigh

A lot of what was written about the luge applies here. And then this is further complicated by the fact that while the luge is a solo event, the bobsleigh event requires a team.

Want to increase your odds even more? Figure out a way to establish citizenship in a country with a tropical climate and get a team assembled there. Of course, then you have to get the whole team to somewhere with snow to practice, but it could happen, right?

_____

Well, there you have it. Above is a list of five summer and three winter Olympic sports that have a higher than average set of odds of you making it into the limelight due to the number of people participating in those events.

Again, that doesn’t mean that you can just walk onto the Olympic stage and grab the gold without any kind of training or practice, but you do have a higher chance of getting your shot.

There are a few others as well, e.g. handball, cycling and synchronised swimming, but the ones listed above give you the best chances. If you desire your 15 minutes of fame, these will give you the chance to go after it…